Sometimes, it’s as if people are just looking to be offended. Ngozi Fulani, head of Sistah Space, a charity for Afro-Caribbean victims of domestic abuse, was invited to Buckingham Palace and instantly found herself embroiled in what could only be described in It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia terms as an “implication.”
As Ms. Fulani (yes, we’re assuming her gender) reported it, palace functionary Lady Susan Hussey (assuming that’s her real name) approached her and then the following exchange happened:
Lady Hussey: “Where are you from?”
Ms. Fulani: “Sistah Space.”
LH: “No where do you come from?
MF: “We’re based in Hackney.”
LH: “No, what part of Africa are you from?”
MF: “I don’t know, they didn’t leave any records.”
LH: “Well, you must know where you’re from, I spent time in France. Where are you from?”
MF: “Here, UK”
LH: “No, but what nationality are you?”
MF: “I am born here and am British.”
LH: “No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from?”
MF: “‘My people,’ lady, what is this?”
LH: “Oh I can see I am going to have a challenge getting you to say where you’re from. When did you first come here?”
MF: “Lady! I am a British national, my parents came here in the ’50s when…”
LH: “Oh, I knew we’d get there in the end, you’re Caribbean!”
MF: “No lady, I am of African heritage, Caribbean descent and British nationality.”
LH: “Oh so you’re from….”
Fulani later judged that exchange as highly traumatic: “I don’t see the relevance of whether I’m British or not British. You’re trying to make me unwelcome in my own space.”
And the kicker: “Although I didn’t experience physical violence, what I feel I experienced was a form of abuse.”
But the thing is, if you conduct yourself in a curious manner, then be prepared to have people be curious about you: Fulani, real name Marlene Headley, of Caribbean background, social justice activist, BLM supporter, decided to come to Buckingham dressed in what appeared to be native African attire.
Fulani would have known what the question “where are you from?” was about. She practically invited to be asked that by her coiffure and dress. For someone supposedly celebrating diversity, she could have chosen to proudly share her cultural and racial lineage.
But, as one Twitter commentator put it, Fulani likely “felt uncomfortable with Lady Susan Hussey’s questioning because deep down she knows that she’s cosplaying the African persona.”
Not everything has to be about politics. Or about race. Or victimization. It’s not even about Hussey’s age (she’s 83 vis-a-vis Fulani’s 61). Forget that Lady Hussey is Prince William’s godmother. The situation could have been better handled by simply assuming a human need to make a connection and applying the universal virtue of charity.
Writer David Isaacson is correct: “There is nothing racist about the question ‘Where are you from?’ Even if the questioner were an old-fashioned type who assumed that foreigners are inferior, the charge would be of xenophobia rather than racism. Even that would depend on context.” (“Where are you from?,” The Conservative Woman, Dec. 3, https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/where-are-you-from/).
The point: “Whether we like it or not, we are defined by our roots. And our multicultural society features roots from everywhere in the world. Indeed we are encouraged to celebrate this diversity. So why do people take offence at the question of their origins?”
Instead, as woke progressives go, Fulani decided to cut off communication, assumed hostility of the other person, and — in the tired language of such ideologues — weaponized her identity to advance her hatred of anyone that doesn’t align with her views.
Take the confusing and ever-expanding alphabet to supposedly cover the entire “spectrum” of the homosexual community. Woke progressives tell us to respect and accept LGBT+ “truths,” regardless of how absurd or no matter how harmful the consequences of such unilateral self-declarations. Schoolgirls have been harassed in school bathrooms and women prisoners raped and impregnated by male prisoners that declared themselves to be women. And yet the Left tells us to leave unquestioned their stated “identity.” To do otherwise, they say, would be to erase their very personhood.
Yet witness CNN Tonight anchor Alisyn Camerota, who spent days blaming the Colorado gay bar shooting on conservatives for their alleged inspiring of violence against the LGBT+. Upon hearing that the shooter declared himself to be “non-binary,” Camerota had a very obvious on-air near meltdown. Apparently “his truth” now needs to be held against the harsh wall of objective reality.
There is nothing inclusive or tolerant about any of this. Intersectionality, critical race theory, and “social justice” activism, all beloved in universities and particularly legal education, are grimly designed to divide and destroy, based they are on nothing but lies. We must work harder for our society to reject them, lest it goes the way of woke progressivism: against everything and yet standing ultimately for nothing.
Jemy Gatdula is a senior fellow of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and a Philippine Judicial Academy law lecturer for constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence
Twitter @jemygatdula
